Against New Zealand, South Africa and Wales and France on their best days, it is not enough to have only your fly-half orchestrating the game. There needs to be two or three players working out where the space is.

England made three clean breaks in three matches this autumn. Three. No moment better summed up their lack of spatial awareness and precision than

With two men unmarked outside him, he chose to bundle and wriggle his way over. He got there but against the very best he would not have.

England's current backs lack the finesse and skill to unpick defences just by body movement, slight of hand, speed of feet or offloads.

Either we find players who can - and I propose Luther Burrell and Marland Yarde start the Six Nations - or the forwards tell Owen Farrell not to give the backs the ball.

That might sound extreme but I played in many games where that happened, where someone said 'the backs are not up to it today, they're not having it.'

It is, of course, a last resort. But as we enjoy today we cannot lose sight of the fact 2015 is fast approaching.

Time is short if England are again to headline on rugby's biggest stage. Right now, we need backs for the future.

Matt Dawson is a rugby expert for BT Sport. Watch all the Aviva Premiership games live on BT Sport .